By Rob Johnson

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, many of our policy makers and top economists are still stumbling in the dark.

One needn’t look far for proof. The symptoms of their failure are everywhere. Financial markets remain too volatile and crises too common. Inequality is raging and increasing around the globe. And environmental damage continues unabated, with rising climate volatility belying claims that we can experience sustained and broad based prosperity without major changes in the global economy.

A key part of this problem – and one that hasn’t been adequately explored – is the economics profession.

Economics is for the most part a discipline that appears to lack awareness of its own purpose, which is to help guide people toward a more successful society. But in order to offer this guidance, economics must emerge from its own dark ages. It must get beyond merely frozen technical questions and model tweaking. Means and ends must be envisioned together. If not, we

Washington’s habit of spending money it doesn’t have has been a defining political issue for the last several years. Now it’s beginning to appear that ongoing political drama over costly stimulus programs, debt-ceiling duels and punishing austerity measures has been overwrought -- if not completely unnecessary.

The Congressional Budget Office, which publishes some of the most-trusted estimates of the government’s future finances, has now lowered its estimate of the federal deficit for 2013, while also offering an improved outlook for the next few years. The CBO says the government’s 2013 deficit will total $642 billion, which is $200 billion lower than its forecast just three months ago. Deficits should continue to shrink for the next two years, CBO predicts.

Under the CBO’s new estimate, the 2013 deficit would amount to just 4% of GDP. That’s high by historical standards, but it would be the lowest deficit by far during President Obama’s five years in office and considerably lower